Siri Voice Actress Doesn't Use Siri (huffingtonpost.com)
An anonymous coward writes: Susan Bennett, the actress who provided the voice of Apple's Siri assistant, says she "doesn't really" use Siri herself. "It's too weird," she says in a new interview. While she uses many Apple products, "I'm used to hearing my voice on radio and TV commercials and that sort of thing, but to hear my own voice coming out of this little computer phone is too strange."
Bennett says she recorded every sound combination in the English language one fateful July in 2005, working five days a week, four hours a day, but didn't know it was for Siri until six years later, in 2011, when another voice actor e-mailed,"Hey, we're playing around with this new iPhone. Isn't this you?" Bennett says she was "kind of horrified, because I hadn't been told... On the other hand, I was extremely flattered." In the interview she also says she felt "dissed" when Siri answered one of her first questions, "What are you doing," with a disgusted "I'm talking to you..." Although on her personal web site, Bennett shares a recording of herself being interviewed by Siri.
Bennett says she recorded every sound combination in the English language one fateful July in 2005, working five days a week, four hours a day, but didn't know it was for Siri until six years later, in 2011, when another voice actor e-mailed,"Hey, we're playing around with this new iPhone. Isn't this you?" Bennett says she was "kind of horrified, because I hadn't been told... On the other hand, I was extremely flattered." In the interview she also says she felt "dissed" when Siri answered one of her first questions, "What are you doing," with a disgusted "I'm talking to you..." Although on her personal web site, Bennett shares a recording of herself being interviewed by Siri.
Siri on my iPhone currently uses the Australian Female voice.
Not having any crApple products I can't be sure, but on other people's ipwnes Siri is always male.
Is that a region specific thing?
There are several voices to choose from now. Odds are that nobody showed her how to change it.
but didn't know it was for Siri until six years later,
where the people actually doing the work are so disconnected from those who end up owning their labor that they don't even know why they're doing it.
If you think the current system is broken, don't look to the Trumps that prey on fear and ignorance... it's time America turned the other way.
Well this takes the prize -- it is the luser's fault for not knowing how to change a default configuration. Again, always, and evermore.
is currently nothing more than a gimmick.
News at 11.
I thought she was computer generated.
uh... you can change the Siri voice?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
what her recording sessions would be used for (they probably just called it something like 'future voice technology' or some other bullshit).... because it was a hell of a lot cheaper than paying out per-device and per-advertisement (or other use) royalties.. at a figure closing in on one billion units sold, even 10 cents per device would have been a wicked awesome paycheck.
Actually, for some reason I find voice actors much more interesting people than regular actors. They tend to be funnier, quirkier, a bit more self-effacing.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Apart from using it for grins and giggles, and as a party gimmick, Siri is rather useless. It can do pretty much what you can do quickly with your keyboard, with varying degrees of inaccuracy. However, when facing a slightly nontrivial request, it does nothing but spin its wheels, like all other so-called digital assistants. Things will have to improve an awful lot for these components to become truly useful.
I've yet to find any voice assistant worth using. Google, Siri, Alexa, doesn't matter. I have no use for them.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
> Bennett says she recorded every sound combination in the English language one fateful July in 2005, working five days a week, four hours a day
The July 2005 date seems to suggest Siri technology fits somewhere between Vocaloid generation 1 (e.g. Meiko) and generation 2 (e.g. Hatsune Miku). Today Vocaloid is in generation 4 and Miku is doing her teal princess hologram concert tour across USA/CAN/MEX, right now.
By the way, an otaku made Siri sing what else than Bad Apple, a cult j-pop song from the Tohou game series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqhWHFrQhOU
Okay one, neither do I because the goddamned useless piece of shit doesn't understand me half the time, takes too long to figure out what I've instructed or asked, on the rare occasion when it DOES figure out what I've said, and then can't comply much of the time anyway.
Also, sometimes I ask a serious question that some smart ass, smarmy fuck at Apple decided it would be funny to have "Siri," the useless digital ASSistant give a flip or cheeky answer to. So I turned it off.
However, if you did want to use the wretched, pain in the ass piece of shit software, it having a voice that sounds like your own is a stupid excuse since there are other voices you could change it to, like a British dude, for instance.
So who really gives a fuck if she uses it or not? Frankly, I'd be surprised if she did. Though I bet if you could make Siri sound like Donald Trump, HE would use that one.
Because you see, you'd have to be a real fucking Narcissist to want your assistant to sound just like you.
No, you just need a genius. Which can be frustrating, if you don't live near an Apple Store.
> Why should I care about the opinion of a voice actress
In Japan, voice actresses (seiyuu) are outright celebrities. Most people know who Sayaka Ohara or Saki Fujita is.
This story blew my mind. Pic-chew-pssh. To
Wish they would include an Indian accented English version, preferably recorded by the actress who plays Priya in Big Bang Theory.
I've used Siri every day since it went online, and I've never heard this woman's voice before.
Kramer for Siri's Voice!
"Why don't you just TELL me the name of the movie you've selected!"
- Seinfeld, Season 7, The Pool Guy episode.
You cut the crucial part of the quote "...on the subject of human-computer interface".
Hilarious: she felt "dissed" when Siri answered one of her first questions, "What are you doing," with a disgusted "I'm talking to you..."
Weak: Bennett shares a recording of herself being interviewed by Siri.
- Not an interview, an advertisement or something akin. Did not take advantage of the obvious existentialist opportunity.